Back in the era when Otto Preminger’s movie version of F. Hugh
Herbert’s piffling “sex comedy” The Moon is Blue was condemned by
the Legion of Decency, Lemonade, the new comedy by Mike Folie at New
Jersey Repertory, would have been a sensation (if anyone would have had the
nerve to produce it).

However, a half century and sexual revolution later, this not
unpleasant comedy’s mechanistic plot will likely confine its appeal to
community theaters and summer stock. It may even provide titillation to
the more sheltered audience members of such venues.

While not long on originality, the setup is interesting and workable,
and there is a good deal of snappy repartee throughout.

Carl and Jim, who were friends in college, meet in a bar ten years
later. The philandering and boastful Carl is married with baby. The single Jim
is monomaniacally married to his successful business. Carl convinces Jim
to come to his home for dinner and an introduction to a suitable
woman.

Unaware that her longtime best friend, the high powered Betsy, is in
the midst of a protracted affair with Carl, his wife Jane invites Betsy to
meet Jim. However, Jim falls in love at first sight with Jane. Jim and
Betsy feign interest in each other in order to facilitate their respective
designs of winning Jane and Carl.

As soon as Jim and Betsy embark on their plan, they begin to sleep
together. All this occurs early on in the first of two acts.

Improbabilities already abound. Would Carl and Jane not have discussed
whom Jane would arrange for Jim to meet? Would Betsy not have told Carl
of the invitation, and refused it? Would the shy Jim, who is so smitten
with Jane, climb right into bed with Betsy? Would Betsy ....?

Any number of ever more improbable twists and turns, several of which
require members of the foursome to act totally contrary to character,
remain to be played out before the final curtain.

Although the ending is essentially the one which you would expect from
the early exposition, Carl is so obnoxiously full of himself that it is
hard to understand what either Jane or Betsy can see in him. The
expected, conventional ending is doubling unsatisfying because of the
nature of the characters and their relationships.

The young cast projects a breezy likeability despite a tendency to come
on too strong. This is especially true in the case of Bruce Faulk as
Carl. His breezy aggressiveness makes Faulk likeable while rendering his
Carl overly obnoxious. Quite a dichotomy here.

Ben Masur as Jim and Dana Benningfield as Jane are especially appealing
and generate a surprising amount of chemistry. Benningfield is an ideal
Jane. However, there is an unprincipled side to Jim which Masur’s
performance fails to explore.

Stephanie Dorian captures the confidence, toughness, aggressive
sexuality and neediness of Betsy. It is an especially well nuanced
performance.

New Jersey Rep's next two productions are quite ambitious and weighty -
Old Clown Wanted, the U.S. premiere of a play by Romanian
playwright Matei Visniec, and Whores, a politically charged play by
Lee Blessing. For now, with its current production of the light
Lemonade, weighty matters will just have to wait.